‘@TVGMMattRoush
Question: I found it odd that The Good Wife ended with Alicia being slapped by Diane. I would think that the writers would create a finale with special significance, but Diane slapping Alicia for embarrassing Diane’s husband in court hardly seems to be that important. I read in your review of the episode about them wanting to “bookend” the slap with the slap on the very first episode. Still, I wonder whether the slap was meant to have more significance than just Diane’s personal pique. Did Alicia deserve a slap because she left Peter? —Paul
Matt Roush: The slap, according to the writers, had less to do with Alicia’s relationship to Peter than with how much Alicia had become like Peter. And to be precise, the last thing we see isn’t
the slap, but Alicia’s reaction to it, and her pulling herself together and composing herself to take on the world as she walks into the future. She won this victory for Peter, and for herself—with him free from prison, she can now free herself from him for good—but it came at an emotional cost, with the betrayal of a great friend and colleague. The slap was meant to resonate with
a sting, to remind us that while we may root for Alicia, we also must lament the tradeoffs that got her to where she is as the series ends. That’s smart, dramatic, adult and provocative, and the opposite of pandering: The Good Wife in a nutshell.
To submit questions to TV Critic Matt Roush, go to: tvinsider.com